You're probably right. I grew up an LA Rams fan from the late '70s. They were one of the iconic brands of the league then. The 1970s NFL
was the Steelers, Dolphins and Raiders in the AFC and the Cowboys, Vikings and Rams in the NFC- and then everyone else...
Then I lived in LA during their final 6 seasons there (1989-'94) and got to go to games in person. I saw how Georgia was deliberately dismantling the team their last two years to get to leave. She looked directly into a local sports news camera and said, "St. Louis is where we want to be." It was sad. When the move was finally announced I thought the league would block it- they didn't. I swore off the Rams and said I was going to be a Chargers fan. That lasted about a week or two.
So there they were, playing in their home uniforms in....Busch Stadium?... What?! But it was what it was. They had full stadiums again and eventually success. When they won the Super Bowl I was as happy as I would have been if it were in LA (I'd left California myself a year before).
My wife and I came to St. Louis for a game in 2003 (my only time there). It was a great, fun weekend. Everyone was so welcoming. I remember leaving feeling even more at peace that the team was well-supported there. The tailgating environment before the game was something that never existed in Anaheim.
But then, the shine wore off. A bland, frankly poorly designed stadium was no longer masked by having super loud crowds and dome field advantage. By the early/mid-2010s what WAS the team's brand? A bland, mediocre at best team playing in front of 60% capacity crowds that
used to be the GSOT.
When the whispers of relocation started I was honestly pretty ambivalent. I knew what St. Louis
could (but wasn't at the time) do to support the team and a new, riverfront stadium could be a huge boost. If that happened, great. If they DID go back to LA, wow, how cool would that be.. I felt I couldn't lose in the deal.
But I'll admit, that January 2016 announcement made me pretty excited. The return of the LA Rams was something honestly that was good for the league as a whole. And not just financially. But yeah, financially too. And why
wouldn't the league put their thumb on the scale of returning to CA? To Super Bowls in LA again. The Draft. The best stadium in the league. THAT brand returning. And going from a declining tv market to the 2nd biggest in the country.
It was not dissimilar from the Cleveland Browns returning in 1999. The league
needed that team to exist.
It's an emotional thing for all involved- whether you're in the receiving end positively or negatively. When teams relocate it's never nice and neat. No handshakes and smiles of "thank you, we appreciate it, but time to move on." It's the Baltimore Colts moving trucks in the middle of the night. It's the Browns suddenly just non-existent. The Oilers abandoning the Astrodome. Etc. And let's be honest, a move of that magnitude wasn't going to come to fruition 3-4 months before that January 2016 announcement.
Of course the wheels started turning several years before. And had they been forward in saying that it probably would have hurt their bargaining positions and resulted in 30% capacity home crowds their final 3 years.
Whatever people think of Kroenke is fine- though I think it's all pure conjecture. Who knows what he's like. Yeah, as a billionaire businessman maybe he comes off aloof or cold to some. Georgia was, well, nuts after all... But buying that land at Hollywood Park was, well, genius. As someone that lived in LA near that area for a decade that is the PERFECT place to have a stadium in metro Los Angeles. When the Lakers moved downtown from the Forum and it seemed inevitable Hollywood Park was going to close I said to friends "that would be a great spot for a new stadium..." Guess I should have been in real estate.
Anyway, I get the emotions on all sides. But I also don't see Kroenke and Demoff as these evil, robber baron villains at all.
Just my opinion.
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2021 04:48AM by LMU93.
